Etsy and AliExpress: what fits Etsy’s rules and what does not

01Where Etsy’s rules leave room

• Craft and party supplies. Etsy says sellers may drop ship these, so a supplier can ship them straight to your customer.
• Materials and components. If you buy components and turn them into your own product by hand, Etsy treats the result as made by you. Buying a finished product and changing it only slightly is not enough.
• Your own design. If a supplier produces your original design and you declare it as a production partner on the listing, Etsy allows it.

02Where it does not fit

Listing a ready-made AliExpress product that you did not design and that the customer did not personalize, and letting the supplier ship it as it is, is what Etsy calls drop shipping. It is not allowed, except for the supplies exception above.

03How an order travels in the cases Etsy allows

1. A customer buys on Etsy and pays through Etsy.
2. You order from the supplier with the customer’s shipping address.
3. You pay the supplier.
4. The supplier ships and gives a tracking number.
5. You add that tracking number to the Etsy order.
6. You answer the customer’s messages until the parcel arrives.

04Keeping the two sides in sync

The weak point is the link between the Etsy sale and the supplier order. If the two drift apart you ship to the wrong address, or forget to add tracking. Sereane prepares the supplier order from the Etsy sale, with the customer’s address, and sends the tracking number back to that sale. You pay for the order yourself: Sereane never pays on your behalf.

If you already placed an order by hand, you can link it to the Etsy sale with the Link an AliExpress order button in All orders, and Sereane takes over the tracking from then on.

What Sereane does not do

Sereane does not check your listings against Etsy’s policies. It helps with orders, tracking and messages for sellers whose products fit Etsy’s rules.